Youngker girls volleyball coach Troy Sherman is used to what he saw Friday night in this young season when his unbeaten team took the long ride from Buckeye to Gilbert to face 4A foe Mesquite.

Mesquite coach Carlos Flys got quite a shock from what he witnessed after seeing the Wildcats' cruise to two wins earlier this week.

The lone flaw from Younker in the battle of these two unbeatens was an 8-2 deficit the Roughriders found themselves in during the first few moments of the first set. After that Youngker was unwavering in its play in a sweep of the the host Wildcats. Scores were 25-17, 25-19, 25-15.

"We're normally not a fast-starting team," Sherman said. "That's kind of been the way it's gone in all three of our matches. I try not to get overly worried about it. They've had a way of coming around and self correcting things."

Youngker, which opened the season Tuesday dealing defending 4A champion Greenway a 3-1 defeat, battled back decisively in the first set. The Roughriders committed five unforced errors early in its 8-2 deficit, then evened the score at 11. They trailed just once more (15-14) before taking the set going away.

Youngker's play at the net on defense was extraordinary all match long and seemed to wear down and intimidate Mesquite's attack.

"We've played fast at the net and been able to use it to our advantage," Sherman said.

                                                                                         Ansley Thompson (8) and Gabby Belcher (15) on the block for Youngker. (Azpreps365 photo).

Flys said Mesquite's first two matches (sweeps) were "not good, they were excellent."

"We played very fast in our other matches, but when things started unraveling tonight we didn't  keep playing. Didn't work to overcome. Our reaction was to shut down. That was very out of character."

Two players led the attack for Youngker -- senior opposite Julie Montes and junior outside hitter Liana Tolliver. Montes missed last season due to a knee injury after a solid sophomore year. Montes finished with 12 kills (unofficially) and was quite effective blocking. Tolliver played at Odyssey Prep the past two seasons. She transferred and was granted a hardship appeal to play immediately when Odyssey decided not to compete in fall sports in late July. Tolliver collected eight kills.